In this episode of the Momentum Media's REB Podcast, Liam Garman, editor of Real Estate Business, sits down with Arjun Paliwal from InvestorKit to explore the innovative strategies driving success in the Australian real estate market.

Paliwal reflects on his team's approach to innovation, explaining how doing things differently and focusing on strategies that deliver results has driven record-breaking growth and a surge in referrals.

He highlights the central role of customer satisfaction, showing how creating "raving fans" fuels organic growth more than advertising ever could.

The conversation delves into InvestorKit's use of specialisation and technology, demonstrating how focused teams and automation streamline processes and enhance service delivery.

InvestorKit recently won the REB Innovator of the Year – Residential Buyer's Agency award.

Paliwal also emphasises the importance of adaptability and continuous improvement, explaining how a culture of learning from mistakes keeps the business ahead of industry changes.

The discussion touches on broader market trends, including the influence of macroeconomic factors, interest rates, and the ongoing shortage of established property supply on buyer behaviour.

Paliwal also explores the evolving buyer's agent industry, advocating for higher standards and professionalism to ensure quality service as the sector grows.

How do you go from growing up in Ukraine to winning Academic of the Year in Australia? Dr Oleksandra Molloy, senior lecturer in aviation at UNSW Canberra, shares her extraordinary journey. Momentum Media's Tash Taylor dives into Oleksandra's courageous move to Australia and her experience pioneering research in emerging technologies, particularly her vital work on drones in modern warfare and the Defence Trailblazer program.

Oleksandra details her efforts to inspire the next generation of women in STEM and offers practical insight into managing a high-impact academic career with family life, emphasising that resilience is key to achieving high goals and making a lasting impact in complex and essential industries.

The Progress Report. New voices. Real stories. Big shifts.

As regulations get more complex, accounting firms are teaming up with brokerages to give their clients better financial outcomes. Tune in to this episode of Accountants Daily Insider to hear from Tom and Ben Hawley, founders of Azura Financial, to find out how brokers and accountants can create strategic relationships to help clients and drive further business.

Tune in to hear more about:

• Why should there be strategic collaboration between the broking and accounting professions?
• How accountants can lean on, and leverage, brokers.
• Differences in finances that accountants and brokers need to be aware of.
• The outlook of the accountant-broker relationship over the next five years.

In October, a remarkable journey came to an end when 16-year-old Byron Waller touched down at Brisbane Airport following 67 days circumnavigating the globe in a light aircraft.

Covering 41,700km in his Sling TSi, Byron's odyssey through the skies took him over oceans, deserts, ice fields, and everything in between, including a landing at the Grand Canyon and guest appearances at big airshows.

It was a monumental effort from a young aviator who just a few years ago was bedridden with chronic illnesses, and turned to flying – including becoming the youngest pilot to circumnavigate Australia, at age 14 – to make his dreams a reality.

On Momentum Media's Australian Aviation Podcast, host Jake Nelson talks to Byron and his mum Jeni about his incredible achievement – and his future aviation ambitions.

In this episode of the Momentum Media's Secrets of the Top 100 Agents podcast, host Alex Whitlock sits down with Nick Boyd, CEO of Belle Property and Hockingstuart, to discuss the future of sales and property management – from maximising the human connection to building brand loyalty.

The conversation explores Nick's philosophy on coaching and mentorship, which he sees as critical to performance and career longevity, and how this focus has supported the network's growth from 40 offices to over 200 nationwide.

The discussion turns to the rise of technology and AI, with Nick emphasising that while AI can enhance consumer-to-brand interactions, the human relationship remains the foundation of trust and success in real estate.

The pair then unpack the dynamics of today's market, noting the balance across most regions while highlighting opportunities in Queensland and Perth, and the role of skilled agents in delivering outcomes for clients.

Finally, Nick outlines his vision for the future – a profession gaining gravitas, built on trust, performance, and the enduring value of relationships.

Amid myriad professional, technological, economic, and sociocultural changes, it is essential that HR professionals face such shifting sands with an open mind, which will allow, one chief people and culture officer says, for greater creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

In this episode of Momentum Media's HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Sydney Children's Hospitals Foundation chief people and culture officer Mariam Hares about her journey in the profession, what her day-to-day in the not-for-profit looks like, the challenges and opportunities she's seeing on the horizon for HR professionals and teams, and how well HR is doing, as a business unit, in adapting to change.

Hares also delves into bringing all business units along for the ride in adapting to change, the questions that HR needs to answer in the talent space, leaning into automation, getting incentives right, creating a strategy to address the many workforce challenges, and her best practice guidance to other HR professionals in the face of voluminous market change.

In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, managing editor Steve Kuper speaks with Andrew Henderson, director of AgSecure and a leading voice on agricultural resilience, biosecurity, and national preparedness.

Together, they explore the recently released National Food Security Strategy discussion paper, the importance of critical inputs like fuel and fertiliser, the implications of trade disputes, and the growing need to integrate food systems into defence planning.

The pair also discuss why food security is no longer just an agricultural issue – it's a national security imperative. With global supply chains under pressure, climate risks mounting, and adversaries willing to target agricultural systems through biosecurity breaches or even agroterrorism, Australia faces a complex challenge in safeguarding the nation's food and fibre production.

From the risks of varroa mite and foot and mouth disease to the opportunities of regional self-reliance and biotechnology, Henderson outlines why food security must be elevated to the same level of priority as Australia's defence posture – and why a secure Indo-Pacific is, ultimately, a well-fed one.

Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team

In the current climate, maintaining psychological safety in law departments requires much more than box-ticking – a stronger focus on culture, and use of AI to ensure greater focus on human issues, is paramount moving forward, says an award-winning and GC Powerlist-recognised group general counsel.

In this episode of Momentum Media's The Corporate Counsel Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back former group GC of Tabcorp, Ivana Kovacevic, who now serves as a fractional GC and advisory board member for Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and keynote speaker, to discuss the importance of building psychological safety in legal teams in the current climate, her perception of what constitutes psychological safety for law departments, and how well the in-house sector is faring when it comes to ensuring such safety.

Kovacevic also delves into the need to move beyond compliance box-ticking, the urgency is prioritising psychological safety, the starting point for in-house teams in creating and maintaining psychologically safe working environments, catering to idiosyncratic needs within one's team, practical steps she has taken within her own teams and what has worked, making time to implement changes, using AI to take a more human approach, leading by example, and the need to be curious and vulnerable.